Looking Backward

What The Wave Said

20 Years Ago... Less than two hours after the Rockaway beaches were open for the season, precinct police, Aviation Police, Park Enforcement Police, Emergency Medical Service (city ambulance) corpsmen, lifeguards and others were joining in rescuing three swimmers. (A fourth swimmer reportedly got ashore by himself and refused medical treatment. One of the three rescued died about a day later at Peninsula Hospital Center, Edgemere). The victims were teenagers who couldn't resist skipping school to get out to the beach on the first day it was open, one police officer told this newspaper.

Councilman Walter Ward, chairman of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee of the New York City Council, left the annual beach and boardwalk inspection disturbed by a number of things he saw, including nobody on the job for boardwalk repair between Beach 72 and Beach 79 Streets, Arverne. New York City Commissioner of Parks and Recreation Henry J. Stern promised the Councilman the workers will be back on the job in a few days. "Expedite it," Ward.

Shirley Cameron was honored as an outstanding educator for 1985-86 by the Queens Council for Exceptional Children. Cameron is the unit coordinator of Public School 23 at St. John's Home for Boys and a partner in the South Shore Educational Consultants on Beach 116 Street.

Broad Channel Veterans observed Memorial Day despite the fact that they had to climb to their Memorial Rock and stand in mud when they got there. The area of the rock is cut off from the community by sewer and road construction.

30 Years Ago... There is a group trying to develop the Arverne area for a huge complex. This would be without any help or interference from the fun city politicians.

There is a group trying to develop the Arverne area for a huge complex. This would be without any help or interference from the fun city politicians.

There was quite a turnout Memorial Day at Rockaways' Playland. Looks as if this season could be a huge success for Playland and all the other merchants.

Wave Editor Leon Locke and his wife, Susan, met with New York Mets pitcher, Skip Lockwood; first basemen/outfielder, Ed Kranepool; and third baseman/first baseman, Brooklyn born, Joe Torre, at a meeting with weekly newspaper personnel.

Dan Tubridy of Broad Channel will announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Assemblyman on June 4.

40 Years Ago... Rockaway's hopes for a single transit fare on the Rockaway IND line, like Mayor John Lindsay's tax program, was caught in the legislative jam last week. Assemblyman J. Lewis Fox's "Square Fare" bill ran into Republican opposition and was defeated. The bill would have ended the double fare which is now collected from riders - the only line in the system to have a double fare.

A newly ordained priest, the Reverend James P. Roberts, formerly of Rockaway Beach, celebrated his Solemn Mass at St. Camillus Church.

A new machine that can clean a swath of beach four or five feet wide with each pass and load debris directly into a truck for removal will start operating at our beaches next week, according to plans for beach and boardwalk improvements worked out at a meeting of the Rockaway civic leaders and the city's Parks Commissioner Thomas P. Hoving Jr.

Funeral services were held yesterday for Private First Class Walter J. Wetzel Jr., a summer resident at Beach 98 Street, Rockaway Park, who was killed in Vietnam. This followed an announcement by the Secretary of Defense that a second local boy, Private First Class Elbert R. Hubschmitt, an Army medic who lived at Beach 44 Street, Edgemere, was killed by a sniper in Vietnam.

50 Years Ago... When the flurry over the change in designation of the local post office stations was at its height shortly after World War II, a suggestion was made that caught the fancy of quite a number of Rockaway citizens. That was to change the designation of the Rockaway postal district from Far Rockaway, now in use, to The Rockaways, and the stations within the new district to be called Arverne, Rockaway Beach, Rockaway Park, and Far Rockaway. Jules Lipitz, president of the Rockaway Civic Club, suggested the idea to Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield. Local Postmaster Abe Finkel looks with favor on the suggestion,

Republican District Leader Sidney S. Hein told the members of the Peninsula Republican Club this week that plans for a united Republican organization are in the mill and can be expected in the very near future.